Jesus. Can this please just end. I'm not in favour of Publishers being purchased by platform holders but I'd take the deal going through now rather than another 2 months of the horrific fanboy warring around the deal from both sides continuing.

Diablo 4 early access beta already had it's first crash, lolz. Only made it to level 3 before the servers went down. Hopefully it gets quite alot more stable over the weekend and substantially more stable in time for the open beta next weekend.

Edit: Servers back up now, but it says I have 56 minutes left in the login queue. Ouch. 

Yea this constant extending of deadlines is getting a bit ridiculous. Like, honestly, these regulators have had plenty enough time at this point to evaluate the deal and what MS is doing/intending to do in terms of remedies. They've also had plenty enough time to hear from everyone else. It really just comes across as dragging their feet now.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Even the Disney-Fox deal closed faster than this and it was a much bigger deal by far, one of only 6 major movie studios acquiring one of the other 6, reducing the number of major movie studios down to 5 and increasing Disney's movie marketshare to over 20%. Comcast dropped out of the bidding war for Fox in early July 2018, making Disney the only remaining candidate to buy them, with both Disney's and Fox's shareholders voting in favor of the merger by July 27, and the regulatory process began almost immediately with India's regulator approving the acquisition by August 12. By March 2019 the Disney-Fox deal had been approved by the final regulator holding it up, Mexico's IFT, and the deal officially closed a week later on March 19, 2019. Less than 9 months is all it took for the single biggest acquisition in recent years to close.

Xbox-ABK deal was announced in January 2022 and has now been going on for 14 months, and it will be at least 17 months before it closes now it seems, June-ish is the earliest it is likely to close if CMA approves in April and EC in May and FTC drops their case because they realize they stand no chance of winning. If FTC foolishly goes forward with their legal battle it will take even longer than that to close. 

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Even the Disney-Fox deal closed faster than this and it was a much bigger deal by far, one of only 6 major movie studios acquiring one of the other 6, reducing the number of major movie studios down to 5 and increasing Disney's movie marketshare to over 20%. Comcast dropped out of the bidding war for Fox in early July 2018, making Disney the only remaining candidate to buy them, with both Disney's and Fox's shareholders voting in favor of the merger by July 27, and the regulatory process began almost immediately with India's regulator approving the acquisition by August 12. By March 2019 the Disney-Fox deal had been approved by the final regulator holding it up, Mexico's IFT, and the deal officially closed a week later on March 19, 2019. Less than 9 months is all it took for the single biggest acquisition in recent years to close.

Xbox-ABK deal was announced in January 2022 and has now been going on for 14 months, and it will be at least 17 months before it closes now it seems, June-ish is the earliest it is likely to close if CMA approves in April and EC in May and FTC drops their case because they realize they stand no chance of winning. If FTC foolishly goes forward with their legal battle it will take even longer than that to close.